Just thinking back -- I only lived in one apartment in L.A. that had no A/C at all (Clark Drive in the Flats of Beverly), and I don't have any idea now how I survived there without it from 1975 to 1979. I had what might have been the coolest apartment in the building, and it was miserable during heat waves, whether Santa Anas or the regular kind with humidity. They were all bad.
The other California apartment that didn't have it (right on the coast in Redondo Beach) truly didn't need it, except during maybe one week out of the year, usually in August or September, and that's probably exactly the weather they're having right now.
But a couple of others had poorly functioning A/Cs, which is very nearly as bad as having none, and that's why I've always looked back on those years as being without it so much of the time.